MIAMI — The federal government is investigating how detailed information about migrant children being held at two American military bases wound up in the hands of con artists who are using it to lure unsuspecting relatives into paying hefty sums to reunite their families, preying on people who have been separated for years, according to the F.B.I.

Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Central America have crossed the southwest border in the last year, creating a political firestorm for the Obama administration. Amid the surge, it has sent several thousand of them to emergency detention shelters on military bases until they can be placed with relatives or sponsors in the United States while their cases are decided in court.

Now, the F.B.I. says, swindlers have gotten hold of precise details about the children to reach out to their relatives across the country, claiming that payments are required to cover the processing costs and travel expenses of reuniting families. Cases of the fraud have been reported in 12 states so far, from New York to California, with the con artists seeking $350 to $6,000 in so-called fees, the F.B.I. says.

“There are enough cases that it’s not an isolated incident. It is a problem,” said Michelle Lee, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in San Antonio.

The leak of information is the latest setback in a saga that has compromised the Obama administration’s broader aspirations for an immigration overhaul. Investigators are trying to determine whether a federal database on the children was hacked, or if a contractor or government employee with access to information on the minors sold it to con artists, a government official familiar with the case said.

The children whose families were targeted were all housed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, military installations that have held nearly 4,500 unaccompanied minors since they began handling the overflow of Central American children arriving at the border.

The F.B.I. started investigating last week after learning that people sponsoring unaccompanied minors had been approached by someone posing as a charity worker, who pretended to facilitate the reunifications.

In each case, the con artist was fluent in Spanish and seemed keenly aware of the immigration process, which made the calls all the more convincing, Ms. Lee said. The caller seemed aware of the stage of the child’s immigration journey and knew who to call at a time just before the migrant’s release.

“They are typically parents, aunts, uncles and close friends of the children who are here in the United States,” Ms. Lee said. “Essentially, they are called and told there are application fees or cost for travel that must be paid, and most of the people assume there is a cost and don’t question it.”

In a similar scheme, someone appears to have spoofed the phone number of a San Antonio business organization in an attempt to lend credibility to the claim, the F.B.I. said. The payments are requested via wire transfer, debit payment or money order.

“They’re asking for $6,000, $3,000, $350, $750,” Ms. Lee said. “The numbers are significant enough that it is clear to us that someone thought about this and made a lot of phone calls. Some of these were debit payments where they requested the bank information. That’s really scary.”

One Miami housekeeper who recently paid a smuggler to bring her 16-year-old daughter from Honduras said that she had been communicating with a woman claiming to be a social worker at a shelter in Texas where her daughter was being held. The woman told her she had to pay $2,000 for her daughter’s one-way ticket from Texas.

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In Mexico, a Stalled Journey

While thousands of child migrants from Central America have crossed the Rio Grande to U.S. soil, thousands more don’t make it that far. Many end up detained or broke in towns like Reynosa, Mexico.

2395_border-children
B.McDonald
Footage of along the Rio Grande; Ivan on camera, seated before the Rio Grande
IVAN - Honduras is depriving itself of a future. Because the future is in the youth. And right now, all the youth are coming. Some of us are lucky to reach the border; some don’t make it this far.
Title: In Mexico, a Stalled Journey
U.S. Border agent patrolling the Rio Grande
THIS IS BRENT MCDONALD WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES IN REYNOSA, MEXICO.
WHILE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CHILD MIGRANTS FROM CENTRAL AMERICA HAVE CROSSED THE RIO GRANDE TO U.S. SOIL, THOUSANDS MORE NEVER MAKE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE, AND FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER, GET STUCK IN MEXICO.
HERE IN REYNOSA, IS ANOTHER SIDE OF THE BORDER CRISIS.
14-YEAR-OLD IVAN FLED HIS TOWN OF CEIBA, HONDURAS AFTER A VIOLENT GANG CALLED DIEZIOCHO TRIED TO RECRUIT HIM AND EXTORT HIS FAMILY. HE WORRIES THE GANG IS STILL LOOKING FOR HIM. I BLURRED HIS FACE TO PROTECT HIS IDENTITY.
Ivan shows bed in shelter dormitory
I MET IVAN AND HIS MOTHER AT A MIGRANT SHELTER IN REYNOSA, A TOWN THAT HAS BECOME A GATEWAY FOR MIGRANTS SEEKING TO CROSS INTO SOUTH TEXAS. HAVING PAID OFF NUMEROUS OFFICIALS ALONG THE WAY, THE FAMILY RAN OUT OF MONEY TO PAY A SMUGGLER TO HELP CROSS THE RIVER.
IVAN - I’m waiting. I don’t have any money to even attempt it.
IVAN’S MOTHER, CELESTINA, FEARED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY’RE DEPORTED BACK TO HONDURAS.
CELESTINA - I don’t want to return there, nor do I want to stay in Mexico. Because the gangs will find us here.
SO FAR THIS YEAR, MEXICO HAS DEPORTED NEARLY 9,000 CHILD MIGRANTS. MOST WERE RETURNED TO HONDURAS.
INM truck releases kids into DIF facility
AT A GOVERNMENT DETENTION CENTER IN REYNOSA, NEW BATCHES OF UNACCOMPANIED MINORS ARRIVE DAILY.
Girl out of focus with flowers
MELISSA - The day we were going to cross the river, we were in a bodega, and the federal police came and said they were going to send us back to our country. 3:44
HAD 13-YEAR-OLD MELISSA MORALES ORELLANA REACHED THE U.S., SHE MIGHT HAVE QUALIFIED FOR SPECIAL JUVENILE STATUS AND BEEN ALLOWED TO STAY. HAVING BEEN THREATENED BY GANGS IN EL SALVADOR AND ABANDONED BY HER PARENTS, SHE AND A SISTER HAD SET OFF TO REUNITE WITH RELATIVES IN THE U.S.
SHORTLY AFTER THEY CROSSED INTO MEXICO, THE SISTERS WERE KIDNAPPED AND NEARLY RAPED BY BANDITS.
MELISSA - 5:54 It was two men. // They took us to a horrible place, rocky and muddy, with a lot of manure. They made us kneel down and they took our money and everything we had with us. They said they knew we were heading for the United States.
MELISSA - They took about 7000 pesos. 9:42
Ivan reads from Psalms... “camino”
SOME HERE SAY THEY RISKED THE JOURNEY BECAUSE OF A WINDOW FOR MINORS AT THE BORDER, A RAMPANT RUMOR IN PARTS OF CENTRAL AMERICA.
MELISSA - Supposedly, Obama was going to give one more month but only for minors from Honduras and El Salvador. So we were taking advantage of that opportunity. But unfortunately we could not get through. 3:25 // We are going to try again to cross before the reform for the minors ends. 4:47
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS TRIED TO DISPEL NOTIONS OF A FREE PASS TO MINORS AND IS NOW CONSIDERING DEPORTING MORE CHILDREN. BUT THE MESSAGE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO OVERCOME FEARS OF RETURNING HOME.
IVAN - Right now, people are saying that they’re deporting children back to their countries. And I don’t know. I don’t know those things, about the law. But I wish they give me a permit or at least not deport me. ...Because if we go back to Honduras again, our lives will be in danger. That’s why we came, to flee that.
————————— END IT ——————————-

While thousands of child migrants from Central America have crossed the Rio Grande to U.S. soil, thousands more don’t make it that far. Many end up detained or broke in towns like Reynosa, Mexico.

“I said to her, ‘Why so much? How much is the ticket?’ ” said the housekeeper, Eva, who asked that her last name not be published because she is in the country illegally. “I started getting suspicious when she could not tell me how much the ticket was. I told her, ‘How do you not know if you are the one purchasing it?’ ”

The woman then lowered the price to $1,500 and passed the phone to a second person, who took down Eva’s debit card information. When Eva’s bank statement came, she said she saw three separate withdrawals.

“I tell this story to people and nobody ever believes me,” she said. “Now I realize that I was tricked.”

She said she had not seen her daughter in 14 years, making her more willing to dismiss her doubts.

“With all the emotion of seeing my daughter, the money becomes the least you are worrying about,” she said.

The federal investigation is in its preliminary stages, and the authorities are still not sure how the swindlers obtained access to the children’s data, which most likely included sensitive medical information.

“While they are in our custody, these children are our responsibility,” Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents the Rio Grande border region, said in an email. “Not only is it our responsibility to see to their care and protection physically, but also the protection of their privacy and their families’ privacy.”

Kenneth J. Wolfe, deputy director of the office of public affairs at the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that handles the migrants’ family reunification, declined to comment on whether there was a security breach.

“The well-being and safety of these children is our top priority, and we take any reports of fraud very seriously,” Mr. Wolfe said in an email. “Trained case managers work with family members and sponsors of minors in the Unaccompanied Alien Children program to make determinations regarding the appropriate setting for the child and make transportation arrangements. No direct payment to shelters will ever be requested during the reunification process.”

Mr. Wolfe said there were currently 1,037 children being held at Lackland and 759 at Fort Sill. The Baptist Children and Family Services, a nonprofit group, is administering both shelters, he said.

The group did not return calls for comment, but Ms. Lee said contractor caseworkers had prevented several of the rip-off attempts, advising parents that they should not have received any requests for money.

It is unclear how many people have already paid the funds but are reluctant to come forward because they are in the country illegally. Others who still have children in federal custody are being warned by government officials to be skeptical of any phone calls requesting money.

Eric Tijerina of the Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, an advocacy organization in Virginia, said he hoped that a social service agency employee was not responsible.

“This is a scam being perpetrated from the outside,” Mr. Tijerina said. “These parents haven’t seen their kids in years, and once they know the kids are in the U.S., if someone calls purporting to be from the government, calling with believable stories, with an incredible script, these people are going to be willing to pay the money.”